Trick or Treat
by JinxJen
Summary: The day that Orihime left her friends and her town was the day before Halloween. The one who came to pick her up reminded her of a ghost. On Halloween, that ghost gave Orihime trick and treat... while she was trying to figure out his intention.
1. CHAPTER 1: GOODBYE HALCYON DAYS

**Ulquihime Halloween Fest 2009**

**Rating:** E for Everyone

**Summary:** The day that Orihime left her friends and her town was the day before Halloween. And the one who came to pick her up reminded her of a ghost. On the Halloween, that ghost gave Orihime some kind of trick and treat... while she was trying to figure out his intention. (Sorry I'm suck at summary)

**Beta-ed:** By the lovely **issues09 **from** BA**. Thanks for reading and proofreading my insanity!

**Disclaimers:** Bleach doesn't belong to me. Bleach is Kubo's masterpiece. Ulquiorra and Orihime don't belong to me. They are Kubo Tite-sensei's shippy. They belong to each other.

**Warning:** At first, I intend to write a crack fic with a simple plot that is "Ulquiorra gave Orihime something on Halloween"... But for some reasons, it turns into SRS BSNS story. This could probably be due to the Halloween theme that I abused and Ulquihime connection to it. And the real plot might be lost in process, I don't know. But I hope you enjoy this little story.

**Author note:** _Italic_ mostly used for thoughts. The narrator might be not really insistent for one person. Whether it's Orihime's or Ulquiorra's or a third person's. I divided into 5 parts so you could click on the spoilers of each one to reading.

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**TRICK OR TREAT**

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**CHAPTER 1: GOODBYE HALCYON DAYS**

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Today _is_ Halloween.

Inoue Orihime couldn't believe it herself that the day she had to leave her friends and her beloved hometown was the day before Halloween.

A week ago, she was actually looking forward to it. Halloween.

She planned to visit Tatsuki-chan on that day because she was invited to her family's Halloween party, "Trick or Treat", which was celebrated together with Tatsuki's neighborhood family -- Kurosaki-kun's family.

And _now_ here she is... in a den full of Hollows, in a separate world different from her own.

There was no Tatsuki-chan or Kurosaki-kun.

Look like instead of planning to join humans' party for ghosts and monsters, a human girl like her, suddenly had gone and joined some evil spirits' party… and unwillingly too.

Maybe the Halloween God wanted to play a trick on her... because she had not been good enough lately.

It became worse when the one who came to pick up... no... abduct... her reminded her of one of the ghosts in the _Zombieland_ movie that she had watched together with Tastsuki before.

He looked so pale... and so white that on their way to his so called "home", in the dark pathway, she felt that he had become something luminescent from floating at one point to disappearing at another point.

He was so different from her who obviously had to run behind him so that she would not get lost in this kind of darkness.

Sometimes she tripped over something that she could not identify well, and every time like that, she felt his vivid green eyes acting like a flashlight shining her face out… and staring at her in a ridiculously strange look.

Each time like that when her gray eyes met his, she kept reminding herself like a magic spell in her head, _"This man is not human. He is not human."_

After a quick stop and a quick glance at her over his shoulder, he continued his walking speed at the same rate. Still, he kept doing that act every time she tripped.

Stop.  
Glance.  
Move forward.

He did not either slow down his speed or say something to ridicule her. He was like a silent ghost walking in a train and checking if there are any passengers getting on the board.

While the one in front of her had not spoken any words yet, for some reasons, she wanted to hear something from him. Just because she hated being ignored.

However, regardless of everything, she still held her breath and followed this ghostly man. She chose to do that to protect her friends whose lives had been threatened by him.

After she had gotten out of the darkness, the following color that sprouted into her eyes was white.

A white desert.  
A white castle.  
A white moon embraced by the darkness of the night sky.

_"Everything here is just like him. The same color."_ She thought while looking at the new and unusual landscape.

"This is the place where Hollows were born and died, Hueco Mundo." He told that to her.

His deep, low and steady voice startled her and had sent a chill across her spine. It was an odd sentiment that she couldn't quite define if it was fear or not.

He took one of his hands out of the hakama's pocket and pointed his finger toward the white castle, "You'll stay at Las Noches where Aizen-sama resided at," and she noticed that he had black fingernails.

She wondered whether he was into Gothic or Victorian fashion, but that abrupt thought was washed away immediately. Because in a split second, the one who just now was right in front of her eyes disappeared and reappeared behind her back. His arm wrapped around her neck while his fingers left a ghostly touch on her shoulder barely.

Within that moment, she felt a rapid shift movement of her body and an odd sound was made.

_BOOM._

When she finally opened her eyes, she had already been inside the castle.

She didn't know how in the world the hollow man had done that.

Well, at least she didn't have to worry about how long she had to continue running from the desert to the castle.

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To be continued...

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**JinxJen's note:**

The inspiration happened when I read back those Ulquihime chapters in Bleach and I realized that the day Ulquiorra confronted Orihime in the tunnel and asked her the infamous seducing line was October 30th. And after he gave her all of orders and intructions, he told her "come to the appointed place at midnight" which mean the day that Orihime went to HM with Ulquiorra was exactly on Halloween, October 31th. Using that timeline, I wrote this story.

In this chapter, Ulquiorra and Orihime were passing through the bordering dimension between Human World and Hueco Mundo known as _Dangai_ which was a dark pathway and using spirit particles as the foot stand.

An odd sound _BOOM_ made was when Ulquiorra used _sonído_ on Orihime_._ It was a technique used by Arrancar which allows him to move at extreme speeds.


	2. CHAPTER 2: CALL MY NAME

**TRICK OR TREAT**

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**CHAPTER 2: CALL MY NAME**

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The meeting with Aizen and his Arrancar soldiers was really terrible.

Although Inoue Orihime had already expected the worst, she still couldn't foresee it was THAT MUCH worst.

_"How could they do that to their own kind?"_

Then again, she sighed.

_"What am I thinking? They are not humans. They just happen to have human-like faces and bodies. Why do I expect them would have some feelings toward each other like humans? I'm in the enemy's territory. A place of bad spirits. Hueco Mundo. Hollow World."_

"Woman." A voice calling out snapped her back from drowning in an ocean of thought.

She had been looking down to the marble of the floor while her feet kept moving, following the trace of the coattail at the front throughout the long hallway. When she looked up, all she saw was an open space in the middle of the wall leading to a closed room inside.

"Get in." He ordered with the same tone and same rhythm.

She was reluctant, but she went in anyway.

Surprisingly, the room was bigger and loftier than it seemed to be. There were a couch, a carpet, a chair and a table for one person. She wondered if they were prepared for her. So they seemed at least to have some consideration when it came to human etiquette about furniture. She thought for sure that they would chain her up like an animal and lock her in a cage, giving the way that they had treated other humans so cruelly and brutally.

Following the trace of the light bending into the dark, she looked up and up. There was another smaller open space installed with three vertical bars located very high on the wall and through that window she saw the moon… the same white crescent moon that she had first seen in the desert.

Then it _hit_ her.

She realized she was indeed a prisoner here. This room was like a prison cell and that prison window was made up for that. And…

Instinctively, she glanced over her shoulder to peek up a shadow of a ghost.

That man was the jailer of this prison… _her_ jailer.

After giving her a quite amount of time to observe the room, with his hands in the pocket nonchalantly, he spoke again with his monotone voice and till now, she just couldn't get used of his deep, low and slow voice.

His voice wasn't like anyone's voices that she had ever known and heard before. There's no emotion in his voice. It was rather like she was listening to a machine making a mechanic sound like human language.

In contrast with her sweetly high-pitched voice and sometimes changing tone randomly in a larghetto moment, his voice was like a tranquil and lazy river flowing with a steady and unchanging current.

The vibration of the sound of his voice just kept echoing in the core of her ears. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but it wasn't unpleasant either.

It was just _strange_.

"Woman, do you get everything?" The ghost asked.

"Eh!? Ah… yes, sir." Jointing back, she replied. _What is he just talking about?_

"Behave and stay here quietly." He gave out the order and proceeded to turn his feet toward the door.

"Ah… Please wait, sir!"

She burst out her voice suddenly and came to regret it later. He stopped his walking and turned his head around. His eyes were glaring at her _strangely_ that she almost forgot what she had suddenly called him for.

Her lips parted. Holding her breath, she spoke softly, "Please tell me your name. I… I want at least to address you properly, sir."

The room fell into silence.

She thought that time had stopped after she finished her sentence. She looked at him nervously… This was the first time that she had enough time to observe his facial features. She thought if she could see some of his expressions to react. But she found none.

Just like his voice. The same frowning expression made by his eyebrows and his black upper lip curving downward. Adding to his tear streak markings, he _looked_ sad… but was he _really_ sad? She doubted it.

She focused on his green eyes which happened to be the most outstanding part on his face. She didn't see any life in them despite green was usually the color of life. All she saw in his eyes was just her reflection… a lonely figure. It was herself. Besides that, his eyes didn't reflect anything. They seemed _dead_. She suddenly felt it was a pity that his eyes couldn't feel anything like emotion because the color was beautiful.

"Ulquiorra Cifer, the Cuatro Espada" His voice broke the silence.

_Is that his name?_ She wondered.

"Ulquiorra-san!?" She spelled out each syllable in his name slowly and stumblingly. In a deep corner of her mind, she thought it was a funny name if it weren't used for the hollow man who was in front of her.

"No need for honorifics. We're not humans and we do not need thing called _keigo_ (human polilte language). The only one you need to address with respect is Aizen-sama." Ulquiorra corrected.

It wasn't like she expected.

She added suffix in his name because she didn't want to be familiar with him. She wanted to create some distances so that she could soothe the uneasiness in her mind. Yet he told her not to add it in because it wasn't needed.

Didn't he know that calling a person's name without suffix meant?

And then she guessed maybe he really didn't care.

"Then, is it okay to call you Ulquiorra?" She asked again softly.

"Let it is." He replied.

Taking it as a chance, she continued.

"So how long should I have to stay here, Ulquiorra?"

Finally, the real question that she remembered to ask before he made her almost forgot to bring it out. And the room went silent again as much as she wished that she hadn't asked this question, but she needed to know what Aizen's plan with her was when he wanted to keep her here.

If he were going to use her or her power to harm any of her friends, she would rather die than do those. If using her power were the purpose for her being here, then she would use that power to destroy their purpose to use her.

Looking at the woman asking him a question while expressing the determined eyes without any fear in them, Ulquiorra closed his eyes and said, "Until Aizen-sama has no use for you, woman."

"My name is Inoue Orihime." She corrected.

For some reasons, she felt odd when he referred her as "woman".

She just _turns_ 15 years old this year.  
She _is_ a high school student.  
Not really a "woman" yet.

She thought "woman" wasn't really a right term for her. It was kind of… rude.

"I know." He replied with his eyes still being closed.

"Then why do you keep calling me as woman? You can at least address me by my name." Orihime made a soft smile and a gesture to show Ulquiorra that _"I called you by your name so in return, call me by my name too." _

Somewhere in her mind, a flying unicorn was irking her about what this current situation was.

Why was she chatting freely with him here?  
Wasn't her intention trying to create some distance with him?  
Why did she suddenly feel so close with him?

But she chose to ignore that irking feeling.

When Ulquiorra's eyes opened, he brushed it off what she expected him to do with her, "I address you as woman because that's what you are."

In other words, the subtle meaning that Orihime caught from his words was that Ulquiorra thought it was unnecessary to call her by name.

Unknowingly, she was making a pouting and disappointed face.

"If you don't want to call me by my name, just say so." Orihime whispered; her voice lowered.

Catching the tone of her disappointment, he sighed and stared at her with an amount of intensity that was enough to produce a beam that could kill anything catching in its firing range, "Woman, only Aizen-sama has authority to address you by your name. Remember that for what purpose both your body and your mind have here."

Orihime knew that she had failed to make Ulquiorra call her by name. In addition with him mentioning "Aizen-sama" caused distress inside her stomach again, she wanted to protest against him, but she still had other things to do.

If she was going to be here, she would let them think that she had some kind of value so that they wouldn't touch or harm her friends. And if disobeying him meant causing the death of her friends then she wouldn't want to.

Looking down at the floor, she replied in an almost inaudible voice, "Yes, sir."

"Good. Your meal will come in one hour. Wait in the room and don't try to escape unless you want to be killed." After giving out all orders to the woman, Ulquiorra turned his head toward the door and this time he would get out of the room.

All of sudden, Orihime reached out her hand to catch the coattail of his uniform very slightly and let it go immediately. That action caused Ulquiorra's movement to be halted once more.

Her mouth mumbled something, but he couldn't catch on the words. She averted her eyes away from his and he had an urge of forcing her to look back at him. _This woman was hiding something._

"What is it, woman?" He asked with his voice extremely low.

By his question, the woman looked back at him. Her face seemed to have a tint of red on the cheek.

"Today is Halloween, so… may I ask for some candies in my meal?" Orihime said with an embarrassing smile.

She knew that she shouldn't do that, at least not in this situation. But when she heard him talking about the meal, she remembered about the last time she had her meal that was with Tatsuki-chan the day before yesterday and they talked about the Halloween party – the party that she had missed and probably never had any chance to participate in it again.

She thought at least Ulquiorra could give her something in her meal so that she could have the last memorial for this Halloween.

Candy seemed fine right? It wasn't hard to find.

But his answer was like pouring cold water on her head. He coldly walked out of the room and how she wished for herself not to do this kind of thing with him again.

Still, after settling her mood, lying down on the couch, she reviewed her flashback about the strange conversation with Ulquiorra today. Unknowingly, she gave out a little giggle.

_"It's a surprise._

_I've never thought that he could talk a lot. Has he been talkative like that in the first time we met?_

_Although all the things he said were unpleasant and terrible, he did answer all of my questions without being annoyed toward them. At least he didn't ignore me like the time in the dark pathway._

_So his name is Ulquiorra, isn't it? What a weird name!"_

For the first time, since she came to this Hollow World, she didn't feel any fear.

Yes, she was feeling much distress, nervousness, anxiousness and was worried to death. But it seemed that she felt no fear, at least not toward the ghost who had dragged her into this monster world.

After meeting with Aizen, she thought that Aizen was scarier. Despite Aizen was smiling constantly, all she felt was disgust toward him. Aizen's smile looked _faked_ to her. How could he smile smugly after witnessing somebody's death?

Orihime recalled Ulquiorra's frown face and somehow… that expression of his seemed to soothe her mood better. She wondered why though. Ulquiorra's face didn't look scary to her. The horn on his helmet mask just made her think more about the funny Noh mask that she saw on the TV before.

She should be wary towards him because he was her enemy. Yet why? Was it because of the ghost man that she came to know about the nature of her power, so that she could improve it more? Or was it because she had found a purpose for her to be here so that she could help her friends?

Orihime didn't know.

She was making questions in her head, but she got no answer for them.

The ghost looked sad on the outside… being a hollow, she thought for sure that he must have also suffered inside.

Her mind was wandering and she fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

To be continued...

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**JinxJen's note:**

Hueco Mundo in Spanish means "Hollow World" is the dimension where Hollows and Arrancar usually reside. Orihime stayed in a castle located in Hueco Mundo called Las Noches where Aizen and his Arrancar soldiers, Espada, reside.

In this chapter, Orihime attempted to use hornorific on Ulquiorra called _keigo_ literally means "respectful language" in Japan using on people we don't know too well such as _-san _or people we talked with respect such as _-sama_. While not using the suffix, it becomes informal, intimate or rude in any case. Here is a reference link: (http://) (en.) (wikipedia.) (org/wiki/Keigo)

Noh is a classical Japanese musical drama where all actors wears mask... especially mask with horn for demon role. Here is a reference link: (http://) (en.) (wikipedia.) (org/wiki/Noh)


	3. CHAPTER 3: CANDY TASTE

**TRICK OR TREAT**

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**CHAPTER 3: CANDY TASTE**

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"We don't have things called like that in Las Noches."

Replying with his calm voice, Ulquiorra closed the door and disappeared on the other side of the wall.

Unknowing to Orihime, Ulquiorra still hadn't gotten away from the door outside the hallway yet.

In his mind, there were puzzled thoughts about the human prisoner he was assigned to take charge of.

_What was with this woman? _

_I knew that she was a strange human, but I didn't expect she would be THAT strange._

_Why did she talk with me so care-freely? She didn't make any sound during the way coming here._

_Why did she suddenly come to talk with me – the hollow who forced her get into this bloody monster world?_

_Why is she not scared at all?_

_What a strange woman!_

_Also… What are those "some candies" that woman was talking about? And what is "Halloween"?_

Curiosity took over him. He decided to come in one more to ask the woman.

Almost there was no sound to be made, he pushed the door half-open and got in. But this time, instead of finding her standing somewhere in the room, he just saw a figure on the couch.

Her eyes closed and her body was lying still on one's side. Some of her reddish-orange hair had fallen down and almost touched the floor marble.

She was sleeping.

_Her human body probably exhausted its function because she drained all the strength by running today. Still, do humans usually make those kinds of expression in their sleep? What was it called again, "blissful" maybe?_

Arrancar usually didn't sleep (except to Starrk who was just laid back and lazy and Yammy who was an idiot) so Ulquiorra didn't understand why the woman made those faces in her sleep. Because Ulquiorra was sure that no Arrancar even when awaking had ever made those expressions like her.

Noticing some hairs on her bangs fallen down on her face, pulling his hand out of the pocket, he reached out with intention to put it up back behind her ear.

"Kurosaki-kun"

She muttered a name and Ulquiorra's hand stopped its motion in the midair. He clenched it into a fist and shoved it back to his pocket.

Lingering his look over her feature for a moment, he turned his feet and walked out of the room.

He felt something clawing at the edge of his hollow hole. There was no wound or injury… but the pain was there.

From what caused it?  
He didn't know.  
He just didn't like it.

He walked and walked through the long hallway with no accurate destination to go in his mind.

"Hey ya, Ulquiorra!"

A man's voice called out stopping Ulquiorra's track.

On the opposite side of the hallway, Ulquiorra saw a man with silver hair walking down towards him with his grin almost stretched up to the ear. He folded his arms inside the sleeves of the Arrancar uniform in a strange way. Moreover, his eyes were always strangely closed.

Ulquiorra realized the man. He's Aizen-sama's right hand man. An ex-shinigami like Aizen-sama.

"Ichimaru Gin" He confirmed the name.

"I heard from Aizen-san that you have to take care of a human girl. How are you today?" Gin was in his good mood and looked like he just wanted to bother Ulquiorra who happened inside his range vision.

"Aizen-sama's order is absolute. It's just a trivial matter." Ulquiorra replied.

"Is that so? Aizen-san said that she has an interesting power and she is quite a beauty too. So I want to take a look." Gin spoke about the woman prisoner with an amusing tone.

He didn't look like he was curious. Or rather he seemed to know the girl enough to have some _other_ fun. "I heard that Ran-chan befriended with her in the human world. I wonder if she would chat with me about my Ran-chan."

"I'm afraid that you can't do that with the woman's current state right now." Ulquiorra answered Gin's subtle intention.

"Hm? What's wrong with her?" Gin asked.

"She has exhausted her body and is sleeping now." Ulquiorra said with his monotone voice.

"Oh! What a pity! I had even brought some candies that I took from Kaname for her." Gin sighed and made his look-alike disappointed face.

"Candy?"

Ulquiorra repeated the strange _word_ about the things that the woman had said before with a look-alike question tone.

"Ah… Ulquiorra had never had candy before right? You're a hollow after all. Okay, I'm giving you some. Here. You should try some and hope it would change that frowning face of yours just like mine."

Gin threw something to Ulquiorra to catch.

Ulquiorra looked at the transparent plastic little bag in his hand strangely and suspiciously. Inside that bag, there were some odd circular shaped things which were wrapped by colorful papers in the middle.

He saw Gin making an example as taking off the paper wrapping around and revealing another small, colorful, and circular thing look like a marble ball. Gin threw one in his mouth.

Ulquiorra tried to do the same. He opened the bag, picked one of the "candies", peeled off the paper wrap and brought the marble near his lips to taste.

"Weird taste. This is candy?" Ulquiorra commented.

After testing that the taste was fine with him, he put it in the mouth.

"There're other flavors too. But my most favorite is persimmon flavor after all."

Gin talked his mouth filled with "candies" and then he heard an odd sound coming from Ulquiorra's mouth, "Argh, Ulquiorra, you're supposed to keep it in the mouth for it melting inside, not to crunch it."

Gin sighed. "Well, it can't be helped. Hollows never had any sweets in their life right. They don't know how to flavor it at all. I have to go now. See ya, Ulquiorra"

Gin waved his hand and walked back the path that he had strolled down before.

Meanwhile, Ulquiorra still contemplated with the bag in his hand.

_How can those sweet things change my face into his? Ichimaru Gin doesn't make sense. _

_But I don't understand why the woman wanted those things in her meal desperately. They didn't give her any more nutrients nor serve any other purposes. In fact, eating those things might cause more problems in her health._

_She said something because of "Halloween" that she wanted "candy". What does that "Halloween" have to do with "candy"? A kind of human ritual?_

_When that woman wakes up, I will ask her._

Content with that thought, he shoved the small bag into his pocket and walked away.

* * *

To be continued...

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**JinxJen's note:** Gin made his cameo appearance in this chapter so random, but it was because he has his motive and role for the plot.


	4. CHAPTER 4: HALLOWEEN DREAM

**TRICK OR TREAT**

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**CHAPTER 4:** **HALLOWEEN DREAM**

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"Orihime, what is that costume?"

Tasuki with her wide eyes asked her best friend who was wearing something she couldn't identify.

"Is it obvious? It's a ghost costume." Orihime replied back with a smile.

She had put lots of effort to make this costume for Halloween. She also made her shoes to match with this costume.

"Then why is the ghost orange?" questioned Tatsuki who looked in puzzle.

"Because it's a pumpkin ghost. Pumpkin is orange in color right?" She said and pointed her finger to the tiny seem-look-like hands on the fabric of the costume.

"When you told me that you're going to be a ghost, I thought it's a human ghost, not a pumpkin." Tatsuki said while trying to contain her laughter.

"Because I've already seen enough human ghosts, so I want to try another kind of ghost. And the pumpkin ghost costume is cute. It even has two yellow will-o'-the-wisps at the back. Don't you think?" Orihime said joyfully.

She spun and turned around for Tatsuki to view her backside that had two yellow fireballs papers stuck on her shoulders.

"Well, if you like it, then I'm fine with it. It's just rare to see someone to wear it though." Tatsuki replied and smiled with relief. Her best friend was sometimes very imaginative in some strange things.

"Hehe" Orihime laughed happily.

Suddenly, the door bell rang. It must be guests who came to join her Halloween party.

"Hai… I'm coming." Orihime ran toward to open the door.

"Happy Halloween. Trick or tr--" Orihime stopped her sentence in the middle after the first look at the first guest who came to her party.

_A white ghost… with a horn?_

"There's no treat, woman. This is not a negotiation." The ghost replied with a male's voice and transformed into a human… _or not really a human_.

His human form wasn't different from his ghost form before. His skin was ashen white. His clothes were white. And he wore a white boned half-helmet with a horn on the head. Besides his black raven hair, the only color that made an impression was the intense deep green color of his eyes.

"You are…" She mumbled the words with shock.

The ghost had revealed himself. He had taken off his costume magic and Orihime realized he was the _real_ one… also a _bad_ one indeed.

"Come with me, woman." He said with a deep, low and slow voice that she couldn't define exactly how it sounded.

At the same time, she saw that he was reaching his hand, opening his palm with the black fingernails, toward her.

Not only his appearance and action were strange, but also what was _stranger_ were the reaction and action of Orihime herself.

She looked surprised and hesitated, but she reached her hand back to him slowly. Her body was acting on its account without any thinking.

Somewhere in the background of her consciousness, Orihime heard a voice, a strangled and broken voice that she wasn't sure if it was her voice or somebody else's voice… shouting… sobbing…

"No… Don't… Don't do that… Don't go…"

Orihime's eyes opened widely.

Her body trembled on the couch. Her hand had already clenched into a fist. She was sweating despite the cool temperature of the room.

"It's a dream." She sighed with relief.

"It's just a dream." She repeated.

Orihime sat up. She wiped off the sweat on her forehead and tried to calm her mind.

_"My happy dream suddenly changes into nightmare. Or it isn't a nightmare? It's real."_

Why did she dream of him coming to her Halloween party with her friends? And why did he have to pop up in her dream and take her away from her friends in the Halloween party?

_"He isn't human. He is a hollow"_ Orihime re-chanted her magic spell. Then again, she sighed. _Hollows were humans once_. She remembered back then about her brother who had turned into hollow.

She wondered if someday Ulquiorra would have a change of heart like her brother did. He didn't look like someone who enjoyed killing like the other Arrancar she saw.

If he had something or someone to care for like her brother did, would he stop his killing and let her and her friends go? Orihime wished for it, but she doubt if it would come true.

The Halloween God never answered her wish before.

Suddenly she heard the sound of the door opening.

She quickly laid down back to the couch, pretending that she was still sleeping. She half-opened her eyes to peek up the one coming.

_Is it Ulquiorra?_

It seemed to be not him.

An Arrancar that she didn't know with the mask covering upper half of the face came in. He was pushing a cart into her room and moving it near the table. He was doing something on the table that Orihime didn't see because his back blocked the view. And as soon as he finished his doing, he quickly pushed the cart out of the room and closed the door. Not even bother to look at the fact that she was lying on the couch.

After seeing the Arrancar was gone, Orihime sat up and approached the table cautiously.

It seemed he was ordered to bring her meal here.

She looked at a square box look bento-like, a fork, a spoon and a glass. There were some liquids in the glass. She tasted it and recognized that it was water. She wondered how and where they could find water in the desert.

_"They must have gone to the real world and brought some water bottles."_ She thought because after all Aizen and his other traitor shinigami also lived here.

Shinigami and humans were alike, so they also had to eat and sleep. And she wondered if Arrancar would also eat and sleep like normal humans. _Or they still eat souls like hollows?_ Orihime shuddered at the thought.

Mainly it just reminded her that her jailer, Ulquiorra, was also an Arrancar. He was a hollow and he might eat human souls. She did see some technique like soul-sucking from his other Arrancar comrade.

She wondered if one day he had became hungry for souls and he might eat her. That thought gave her unlikable feeling.

She decided that she would ask him next time they meet so that she could prepare herself... _not to be eaten._

* * *

To be continued...

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**JinxJen's note:**

Orihime was dreaming about her Halloween party where she made her own Orihime-like Halloween costume. Her orange pumpkin ghost costume came from the Halloween spread that Kubo Tite drew in chapter 379. She was so cute in it.


	5. CHAPTER 5: TWO WAY SYMPATHY

**TRICK OR TREAT**

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**CHAPTER 5: TWO-WAY SYMPATHY**

* * *

"I see that you haven't finished your meal."

Ulquiorra said coldly, looking at the meal dish which only had one or two spoons consumed. The rest still left intact.

Orihime looked at the square box with guilt.

It wasn't like she wasn't hungry. She _was_ hungry.

But after having a happy meal with her happy friends from the happy Halloween party in a happy dream, she woke up and saw her reality: the cold meal was left alone in the room waiting for her to eat in a lonely way. She had no mood to eat it happily.

Also the thought of whatever Arrancar ate just kept coming back, haunting her. She really felt no appetite at all.

In the end, she only took one spoon and discarded the rest.

It was even worse when Ulquiorra came in and threw to her a set of Arrancar uniforms – the same style as his.

He told her that she had to wear that as a proof of her loyalty to Aizen-sama, _a proof of her betrayal_. After hearing it, how could she find the mood to finish her meal at that time?

Orihime kept herself quiet while Ulquiorra just continued his talking.

"Aizen-sama had me in charge of your being. It is your duty to preserve your life until Aizen-sama calls for you. So finish it."

In other words, as long as she's alive physically, it didn't matter for what would happen to her emotional state.

Her heart was on verge of breaking, but because of her friends, she held it back and kept it in check so that she wouldn't lose it.

Even if Aizen tried to tie her body and her mind, her heart would never belong to him.

Orihime still continued her silence as in looking down at the floor. She didn't want to face Ulquiorra whose eyes were intense enough to break her soul, to see through it.

At the same time, Ulquiorra saw that the woman was being quieter than the last time.

Did she finally realize the situation she was in now?

It was rather strange when she was not the one talking, but him.

Still, being silence and doing nothing wouldn't get your job done, _woman_. He had to do _something_. His duty was to make sure her following the orders.

"Is it because of the Halloween you were talking about?" He asked.

"Eh?" Orihime looked up. _He can read my thought?_

"What is a Halloween?" He repeated, asking her the question that he intent to find out.

_He didn't know about Halloween? Despite being a hollow? Is he trying to be funny?_

Then again, she took her courage to look into Ulquiorra's eyes. She saw the intensity in his.

_He was being real. He wasn't lying._ He really wanted to know about it. What could she say?

"Halloween is a holiday in my world. A day when the spirits from the death visit the living world. We usually have party among families and friends wearing costumes and playing trick-or-treat. We also get some candies on that day." Orihime explained.

It took about a minute for Ulquiorra to absorb the information. But the time seemed to stretch into one hour.

He was listening and was looking like deep-in-thought, but then again, Orihime wasn't sure. She had never been good at reading someone's face, especially the face that hardly had anything budging on.

"Deadpan" might be the right word to describe his face right now. Though there was something in his eyes that made Orihime curious… like she could see some little sparkles in them even though there was none.

"Why do you humans celebrate those kinds of thing?" Ulquiorra said and Orihime realized it was a question.

"Because it's fun." She answered.

She was still taken back as for why he wanted to ask her about those. But it seemed Ulquiorra really didn't care about those things at all.

Because afterward he negated at her previous statement of fun, "It's meaningless. You're already in the dead world. You don't need those trivial things anymore."

"I know." Orihime replied with her soft voice.

Her eyes went sad. _You don't have to tell me that. I'm already aware of it._

"Then why do you need some candies in the meal?" Ulquiorra looked at the woman and shifted his gaze to be square box.

He didn't understand.

Those things she said to him were irrelevant to each others.

"Halloween", "party", "candy" and "fun" with "finish her meal" and "preserving her own life"

"I… I just want to have my last memory about the Halloween because I'll never see it again." Orihime spoke with her strangled voice.

Her hands clutched the fabric of her skirt tightly that it could leave some crinkles. She stared at her hands intense enough to hold back her tears.

"So if those candies were provided to you, you will finish your meal?" Ulquiorra said with a tone that she couldn't verify whether he was telling a statement or a question.

Even so, he did shock her one more time with his strange words.

"Eh?" Orihime's eye widened. _What did he just say?_

Was he offering her so that she could finish the meal? Why was he fixed on her eating her meal so much?

She could drink water and survive without eating anyway.

"Answer, woman." Ulquiorra demanded. His voice went lower than usual.

"Probably." Orihime whispered.

"Yes or no?" He shortened the question.

"Yes." She replied.

The room was at a halt for a moment that Orihime thought it would be immobile for eternity. She could hear her heart beating in a strange rhythm… like she was anticipating his next action.

Taking his hand out of his pockets, Ulquiorra threw something to her hands. "Take it."

She opened her palms and saw a little bag which had some color papers wrapping inside.

It was a candy bag.

There were some candies inside and she recognized the shapes.

Orihime looked at Ulquiorra and confused, "I thought that you said you didn't have those in Las Noches."

"I just happened to find it." He replied with his deadpan face.

Orihime glanced back at the little bag in her hands and whispered with a soft tone, "Is that so?"

"Now you have the candy, finish the meal." He glared at her intensely again. The demanding tone in his voice came back as normal.

"Yes, sir." Orihime quickly responded.

She started to move the fork in her hand stirring inside the bento box.

Shifting her glance between the bento meal and the candy bag and finally back to Ulquiorra's face, she called out with a voice that was audible enough, "Ulquiorra!"

He turned his eyes at her but said nothing to respond.

She went on her conversation, "Thank you!" and switched her eyes back to the meal to finish it quickly.

Ulquiorra didn't do anything to responds her graceful line besides standing still. Both of his hands had already been gripping inside the pocket … as if he was trying to refrain to take them out.

He observed the woman and this was the first time he saw her smile. And she was smiling while thanking him. He wondered in his thought if the woman had forgotten what he had done to her because those things he had done until now didn't deserved any appreciation.

He just did it to cope out with her defiance and stubbornness. Still, he wondered himself that why he had to bother to cope up with her after all. It seemed that he couldn't ignore this woman's presence.

Her words, her expressions, her actions… everything about her irked him… At the same time, they fascinated him in a way that he couldn't quite get through.

After finishing her meal, Orihime happily opened the candy bag and picked a random color one. She took off the paper wrap and put the candy in her mouth.

_"This flavor is…"_

Ulquiorra was startled. He didn't expect this coming.

As he thought, he would never fathom out the constant changing in this woman's mood.

"Woman, you're crying."

Just a minute before, she was still smiling, and then the next minute after, she had tears in her eyes… _because of eating a candy_?

"Eh? I'm not… I'm not… I'm just have some dust in my eyes." Orihime quickly rubbed her eyes.

She didn't want to cry right now. Not in front of him.

She couldn't be weak at the time like this. The tears just came out on its account and she couldn't control.

Nonetheless, Orihime was stunned when one of his hands reached up and held her wrist of the hand rubbing her eyes.

His other hand was…

With his thumb and index finger, Ulquiorra held her chin, slightly lifting her head up. He was looking deep into her eyes which still had some liquids in the corner.

"Do not lie to me." His voice became stranger. The tone was raised up.

Orihime had no option but spoke the truth. "The candy flavor… It reminds of someone I miss. My eyes just automatically formed tears. I'm okay."

"Which flavor is it?" Ulquiorra lowered his voice. His hand still hadn't let go of her chin.

Every nerve in Orihime seemed frozen at that time; all she could do was sitting still and exchanging eye-to-eye with Ulquiorra.

"Um…" Orihime didn't want to say.

She tried to force her eyes look away, look at other random things but his eyes, but she couldn't.

"Say it, woman." He ordered and the speed in his voice came out fast.

She felt his grip on her face tighter.

"S-Strawberry." She answered and the word started to sink in her ears.

"I see." Ulquiorra replied. His voice came out sharp.

He finally let go of her chin and Orihime finally found strength to move her hand back.

_What is he getting?_ Orihime didn't want to know.

There was a pause between two of them. And the tense atmosphere was nerve-cracking.

She didn't want him to think that she was stupid enough to cry over a candy. Then again, it might be too late to fix it. He had already seen her crying. _She was a foolish woman._ She had just let her guard down with him because she was a bit happy that he gave her something that wasn't awful to her.

"Ulquiorra, have you eaten candy before?" Orihime broke the silence with her question.

This time it was Ulquiorra who looked at her stranglely. She thought so because it was his eyes somehow widened for a second before looking down, not at her, but the candy bag.

She quickly explained her intention for the previous question, "I just wonder if Arrancar would ever eat something like candy."

"Arrancar don't eat human food." He replied as quickly as she did too.

"Then what do you eat?" Orihime perplexed and had a feeling of not wanting to hear his answer coming next as she guessed before.

"We don't eat, woman." Ulquiorra replied. "We survived by consuming spirit particles in the air."

It was different than what she thought, but it was also different from human's digestion system. _I guess he was indeed a ghost._

"But the last time, your friend did eat some… souls." Faltering at the _last_ word, she glanced at Ulquiorra nervously.

Ulquiorra stared and the woman. His lips part slightly to let out a small sigh.

"Yammy is an idiot. He just likes to throw everything in his mouth. And he is not my friend." He said with his rigid, monotonous face and tone. But Orihime was taken by surprise at his words inside.

_You are not friends? So you're alone here without any friends. Like me._

She wondered at the weird feeling that she was having for Ulquiorra now.

Why did she suddenly found him as similar as her when in fact they were totally different both inside and outside?

The magic spell that she recited before hadn't worked anymore.

_He is not human. He is just a lonely being. He didn't have anything or anyone to care for, to rely on._

The feeling of sadness returned to her.

In this strange world, she had become strange too… because she felt sympathy with this hollow man. Somehow, she could understand how he became "that" way and the reason for why she couldn't to bring herself to hate or afraid of him.

She looked at Ulquiorra. She wanted to say something, but couldn't bring out the words. For another reason, she wasn't sure if he could understand her words.

Catching her staring at him, he saw her biting her upper lip. Ulquiorra couldn't contain his annoyance.

"What do you want to say, woman?" He asked.

Orihime startled.

She blabbed whatever things came first in her mind, "I-I just wonder if you will be hungry someday and might want to eat something." _Like eat me someday._

"I find no appetite in human souls." He replied impassively. Then he took a glance at her, and continued, "And I imagine that I would find you quite distasteful." He gave a hint of her subtle question.

Orihime smiled in relief, but then took a minute to think about what he had said.

_Wait a minute… What?_

"Distasteful?" she repeated with her voice louder than usual, glaring at him angrily. "And just what do you mean by that?"

Ulquiorra was looking at her askance, later he just turned his head on the side and gave out no comment.

In his eyes sparkled some kind of amusing and mischievous look, Orihime knew it. Even if Ulquiorra didn't show anything on his face, by his words and his actions, it was enough to know that he was trying to _annoy_ her.

Why did this cold and aloof hollow man yesterday suddenly turn into a new character?

He still said some terrible things to her, but the fact that he still kept his attention to her conversations was what mattered.

_I thought that he was a silent and distant type. He seemed not like what he could be._

Unknowing to both Ulquiorra and Orihime, by the time passing in every second, there was something between and inside them keep growing. Whether it could blossom or not, only time will tell.

What she received on that Halloween day was a trip to another world full of (bad) ghosts and monsters with no ticket to return.

She was put in a prison cell and the ghost with green eyes became her jailer.

Although there was no chain to tie her, she couldn't escape from him. He bound her with his words, a threat of killing her friends and she had to obey because she wanted to protect them.

He was the cause of everything. The root for all of her distressed, nervousness, anxiousness, and worried feelings.

But she couldn't hate him. She also wasn't afraid of him because inside, she knew that he also couldn't escape from his suffering as a hollow and had to serve Aizen who was once a shinigami that killed hollows.

It was ironic… for both of them.

On that same day, he gave her some candies treat and a ghost costume just like his own.

On the Halloween day of that year, Orihime had also become a ghost… just like him.

The different was… the color of her costume wasn't orange.

The color of her halcyon days.

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**END THE MAIN STORY.**

**Thank you for reading!**

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**JinxJen's note:**

There'll be a bonus chapter after this one. And it'll be more light-hearted than the main story. If you want to know how Ulquiorra and Orihime will end up in the future, please read.


	6. BONUS: GHOST COSPLAY

**TRICK OR TREAT**

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**BONUS CHAPTER: GHOST COSPLAY**

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"Look! Look! Ulquiorra! There is a bat on that tree branch! It's so cute!"

Orihime sat and pointed her finger to another part of the tree. Meanwhile, Ulquiorra who sat next to her lazily moved his gaze following her pointing direction.

He didn't care much about the scene besides _his_ woman.

"Are you sure that you don't want to come inside? They might be happy to see you too." Orihime asked and looked at him.

She glanced at the balcony. Her eyes followed to the room inside where the Halloween party between her friends was held. They appeared to be having some wild fun inside.

"My release form was scary enough to scare people." Ulquiorra remarked. He pulled her _closer_ to him.

"Well, that's true, but I'm not scared though." Orihime giggly repeated the word she had told him before and smiled blushingly. "I think you looked magnificent in that form in a sense."

"In what sense?" He asked in curiosity. One of his eyebrows moved up slightly.

One of his hands reached to play with her hairs which had fallen out from her costume.

"Well, like _Batman, The Dark Knight _in the movie we saw yesterday?" Orihime hum and haw with her index finger waving around, but she managed to recall one.

"That trash didn't look deadly magnificent like me, woman." Ulquiorra replied with a sarcastic tone.

"Hehe." Orihime laughed. She was having fun. So was Ulquiorra.

She shifted her body to take Ulquiorra's hand that was playing with her hair. She held his tightly.

She was happy that he came back… came back to her.

"Don't move, woman! Unless you want to fall off." Ulquiorra reminded Orihime that they were on the tree right now.

"I'm sure that you will catch me though" Orihime said wittily.

"Woman" Ulquiorra gave out a sigh. He pulled her body onto his lap and held her tight.

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_Later, in the party house… _

"Uwah. Ulquiorra, what's with your costume?" Tatsuki asked with a surprising voice.

She tried to identify whether he was Ulquiorra.

"Don't you have your eyes? It's a ghost." Ulquiorra who wore a white kimono said grumpily.

Around his forehead tied a white piece of triangular paper. It was a _hitaikakushi_ for _yūrei_ in Japanese folklore. He also had to force his hair growing longer to cover half of his face to fit the image.

The only missing may be some will-o'-the-wisps around him.

And on his head were…

"But why do you have to wear that ghost costume?" Tatsuki said and tried to restrain her laughter.

_You were already a ghost, in any case. And why does your ghost costume have horns on the top?_

"I thought you didn't like to dress up." She said with her almost teary eyes.

"If I didn't wear this one, the woman might request me to wear that tomato fairy costume over there." Ulquiorra pointed his finger at the only one costume left on the hanger. "I didn't have choice."

"But I thought you might look good in that tomato fairy costume." Said Orihime who was also a different kind of ghost came behind him shyly.

"Red wasn't my favorite color, woman." Ulquiorra sighed. "It wasn't."

Looking at her best friend and the boyfriend of her best friend exchanging glances, smiles and blushes to each other, Tatsuki smiled softly.

_"What an odd pair! But they are hilariously cute together in a sense."_ She thought.

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**END.**

**Thank you for reading!**

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**JinxJen's note:**

_Hitaikakushi_ is a white piece of triangular paper or cloth worn on the head by _yūrei_ in Japanese folklore. Here is a reference link: (http://) (en.) (wikipedia.) (org/wiki/Hitaikakushi)

_Yūrei_ are ghosts figures in Japanese folklore, analogous to Western legends of ghosts. Here is a reference link: (http://) (en.) (wikipedia.) (org/wiki/Y%C5%ABrei)

_Yūrei_ are usually dressed in white, the white burial kimono. They sometimes have a _hitaikakushi_ which is a small white triangular piece of cloth tied around the head. Hair for a _yūrei_ is often long, black and disheveled. _Yūrei_ are frequently depicted as being accompanied by a pair of floating flames or will o' the wisps (_hitodama_ in Japanese) in eerie colors such as blue, green, or purple.

In Ulquiorra's case, he didn't have will-o'-the-wisps, but rather he had horns on his head. Ulquiorra's costume was a mix between _yurei_ (ghost) and _oni_ (demon) Because he's a demon ghost.


End file.
